Republican v. Republican

About all Texas Tom Connally had to do last week was to relax contentedly at the center of his big committee table and referee what had become almost exclusively a G.O.P. fight. In the epilogue to the late Great Debate, Republican had been set against Republican. The specific question: the Wherry resolution to bar sending troops to Europe without congressional approval.

Connally listened with bored detachment as a parade of pro-Wherry witnesses trooped to the stand ahead of the Republicans. There was the usual miscellaneous collection of Communist party-liners, pacifists, feminists. On their heels came a handful of air-power apostles, including a less than voluble Lieut. General Curtis E. LeMay. LeMay's main and somewhat irrelevant point was that the major U.S. blow should be "by strategic bombing." Would he vote for the Wherry resolution? "I don't know," said abrupt Curt LeMay, whose political interests are no wider than the flight deck of a 6-36.

The Little Toehold. Then the bored Connally perked up. The Republicans' Harold Stassen appeared, to damn the Wherry resolution and coolly out-badger fuming and contentious Senator Kenneth Wherry. And the next day Thomas E. Dewey, in his first appearance before a congressional committee, dealt his isolationist colleagues one of the most demolishing forensic blows they had yet received.

No other proponent had put the case for U.S. troops to Europe more expertly. The Wherry resolution, Dewey said, was the final "little toehold of isolationism . . . the last gasp of ... a school of thought which basically would like to withdraw from all the world to our own shores."

In the face of expert military testimony that Europe cannot be held by naval and air power alone, "the supporters of this resolution are driven to the inexorable position that they do not believe Europe could be held under any circumstances." But had they forgotten that there are already 112,000 U.S. troops in Germany? "No one has proposed that they be withdrawn, and I doubt if any responsible person will do so. That being true, it seems to be our inescapable duty to back them up. . .

"Adoption of the [Wherry] resolution would be a simple, direct notice to Stalin that we do not intend to back up our men in Europe and that they and Europe are his for the asking." The U.S. had given that kind of notice before, with fatal results: to the Kaiser and to Hitler, both of whom had been sure that "America would not intervene." The U.S. had announced "in substance," said Dewey, that it would not defend Korea, "and again the aggressor moved in." The Wherry resolution would be taken "as a signal that the U.S. has hauled down its flag."

The Fortress Illusion. "It is the idea," said Dewey, with unspoken but unmistakable reference to Herbert Hoover, "that fortress America could survive alone." Said Dewey flatly: "It could not . . . fortress America is an illusion." The fall of Europe would mean Russian domination over Africa and Asia. Essential raw materials of munitions--chromite, manganese, bauxite, uranium--come from the mines of Africa and Asia. Without them, "our industry would grind to a halt." U.S. troops to Europe are a matter of "necessity for our self-preservation."

Added Tom Dewey: "The mood of the world has changed in the last two months. You can almost feel it in the air. We hit bottom last fall, but we have been on the rise ever since . . . This is no time for any action by us to reverse the spiral of confidence and plunge the world again into an atmosphere of despair."

Tom Connally blinked happily through the horn-rimmed spectacles hanging on the end of his nose. He had his own compromise resolution all ready. It would request the President to 1) consult with key congressional committees before sending troops, 2) make certain that the other NATO countries are doing their share, 3) give Congress periodic reports on how things are going. This week there was not much left for Connally to do but hear Robert Taft ("the American people are being deliberately misled") and Herbert Hoover. Next step: the committees will smother the Wherry resolution and substitute Connally's.

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